Second shawl of 2010

Well, it's February, so it must be time for shawl no. 2. In fact I finished this a couple of weeks ago, and was waiting to get some great photos before posting about it. But since my skillz are lacking, here's what I have:

Pretty, no?

I also finished my Vine Yoke Sweater (another design by the utterly gorgeous Ysolda) and IT FITS OVER THE GIGANTA-RACK PEOPLE!!!!!! Looky... (again, poor pics, sorry!)

The reason that it looks as if it is gaping a little over the belly is that one of the 9 buttons I bought mysteriously disappeared, so I was missing one. The children swear they know nothing about it, but I have my suspicions...... Anyway, after this was taken, I moved the top button to the middle, so problem solved.

Especially unflattering picure of my bum - but it does show how nicely this cardigan goes in and out with me.

There have been other things on the needles this month, but these are definitely my highlights.

Last weekend's niece fest

I had a lovely day last Sunday. Went to London to see my sister and my two nieces. Mum was there too, and my Dad & Stepmum popped in for lunch so it ticked lots of boxes! Both E & G were adorable. G shown above at 1 week old. E is 23 months. It's a joy to be able to sit and snuggle a new baby. They are so soft and utterly trusting. Lovely! I gave them a haul of presents, some made, some bought. For Ravellers, you can see the baby blanket and cardy here, along with the cot toy.

For E, I made the owl hairpin - modelled above by sis - that I blogged about before (10 minutes and it's done!) and the megahit of the day, Teddy. She slept with Teddy and we played ball with Teddy and Teddy kept getting lost. Luckily in the same place so E kept on rescuing Teddy. Phew!

Aren't the girls lovely? So nice to be able to give girly things too. A change from my boy-dominated life!

First Blog

I've had such a crafty obsession recently that I thought it was also time I joined the blogging world. I have read so many blog with great links and ideas - not that I am sure that I will be up to the standard of most that I have read.

As an excuse to avoid cleaning the house, I've had a charity shop trawl over the past couple of days. On Wednesday, after waving goodbye to my 9yr old boy who was away on his first residential school trip, I headed off to Wooton under Edge. I'd decided that I wanted to try out felting jumpers to make them into things - first find your jumper!

Luckily in the first shop I went to, there was a hand knit jumper. Mostly brown, with darker brown and cream fairisle work. It was a bit pricy (around £4 I think), but I went for it anyway. It felt as if it was made from wool. A couple of shops later I found a lacy skirt for me, and a beautiful vintage silk dress. It's floor length and almost looks like a nightdress. I don't know what era it's from. There are hand sewn metal poppers hidden on the button band, with silk covered buttons on the front. It's the most beautiful fabric. I don't know what to do with it yet - but I couldn't leave it to go for dressing up! It cost £3.50, so bargain!! Pictures show full length and close up of the pattern.

Yesterday, I went into Stroud, and got 8 knitting magazines for £2, and then hit paydirt in the RSPCA shop. Wool!! A cone of pink wool - I guess it's lace weight, a smaller cone of a deeper burgundy shade, and 3 balls of fluffy cream - maybe thin dk? Anyway, very pleased. I'm thinking shawl. The yarns are pictured at the top of the post.

So this morning, when I couldn't sleep (for some reason my body decided that 3am was wake up time) and eventually gave up and came downstairs, I started cutting up the jumper that I had felted in the washing machine (worked like a dream). I'm making it into a tote, using the guidelines from http://www.canadianliving.com/crafts/other_crafts/recycled_sweater_totes.php

It's looking good so far - but a bit too wide, Will decide later what to do. In the meantine, I am using some of the fluffy cream wool to stitch a decorative blanket stitch onto it.

So I think I'd better finish now - hadn't actually meant to start a blog right now (more cleaning avoidance...) so I'll go and learn a little more about it!